[Ralph] Branca folded his bare arms and looked out onto the golf course. I asked if he had mentioned to anyone the reason for our lunch — the second revelation I had recently told him. He said he had told his wife, Ann.

“I said,” recalled Branca, “‘do you know you married a Jew?’”

•

Branca’s mother, Kati, immigrated to the United States in 1901 from Sandorf, Hungary. (The town is now Prievaly, Slovakia.) Her maiden name was Berger. I had included this fact in the book I ...

The Pirates’ best power-hitting prospect in a decade has become utterly cringe-worthy, whether a pitch or a grounder is headed his way. His average is down to .197 after again going hitless in the Pirates’ 2-1 loss Sunday, and his three home runs and 15 RBI seem frozen in time next to those 66-and-counting strikeouts.

Since returning to the Pirates on July 25, he is batting .176 and astoundingly has hit ...

In their one and only appearance on ESPN, the Rockies became the first modern team to lose 17 consecutive games on Sunday, falling 6-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Phillies had cornered the market on Sunday misery, their 1927, 1928 and 1960 teams all dropping 16 straight. The indignity now belongs solely to Colorado.
...
Looking nervous and hesitant, starter Esmil Rogers nibbled at the strike zone, hardly resembling the pitcher who beat the Reds last week. Pressure found ...

Trade deadline acquisition Jason Marquis’ time with the Diamondbacks already appears to have come to an end. The Diamondbacks right-hander left Sunday’s start against the Mets in the fourth inning with a fractured right fibula, an injury that likely will end his season.

Marquis was struck on the right leg by an Angel Pagan line drive in the third inning. He remained in the game and finished the inning, then pitched to three batters before going down in pain in the fourth.

But three unearned runs weren’t enough as Carlos Pena hit a two-run homer off Eric O’Flaherty in the seventh inning to cap a meltdown by the Atlanta bullpen and give Chicago a 6-5 victory. In the process, Braves second baseman Dan Uggla’s hitting streak was snapped at 33 games.
....
With Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson sidelined, and Derek Lowe scuffling, the Braves have needed rookie starter Brandon Beachy to pitch well, and he has done ...

If we combine hitting, defense and base running, WAR (wins above replacement) rated him as the seventh-best player on the Phillies this year. ...

Howard benefits significantly from the quality of the hitters ahead of him in the batting order. Chase Utley, Shane Victorino and, to a lesser extent, Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco all have strong on-base percentages. Through Wednesday, the Phillies’ 1-3 hitters reached base 547 times, the eighth most in the majors. But as a group, they ranked ...

Instead of losing a sleeve of balls on a golf course or taking a long mud bath during a spa day, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti admits that he has recently allowed himself a guilty pleasure.

About once a month, he’s been going to dinner with “five or six guys who are well-versed in life,” he says. “We talk about whatever comes up. If we’re there three hours, I hope the baseball conversation is only 15 minutes.”

The other night, the group included Tom Sherak, the president of the Academy ...

Lowell Palmer: Or as we used to watergatingly call him “Lowell Wackier, Jr.”

Palmer has one of the coolest baseball cards of all time. In 1970, he refused to remove his sunglasses for his Topps baseball card photo shoot. He refused again in 1971 and his major league claim to fame was etched in baseball history.

Palmer’s Wikipedia entry reads, “Palmer was renowned for wearing dark sunglasses while pitching and his baseball cards are considered classics.”

Field of Dreams opened in cinemas on April 21, 1989.
During the film, as you know, Kevin Costner’s character goes to Fenway Park with James Earl Jones’ character to watch the Red Sox play the Athletics.

We can assume that the film was shot in 1988.

There is a brief shot of Kevin Costner (or a hand pretending to be Kevin Costner) keeping score.
The camera shows the following, mostly-incomplete names on the scorecard:
EED
RRETT
BOGGS
ANS
WELL

Maybe much could change in the last six weeks of the season to change this outlook, but from the looks of things now, the neo-number guys are going to have a tough time pulling an American League Cy Young award winner out of their computerized hat.

Last year they came up with Felix Hernandez, whose 13-12 record belied everything the award had ever meant. The neo-number guys told us that wins don’t mean anything, that it’s the last thing on which to judge a pitcher. Forget Tom Seaver, ...

But before trying to reinvent the Pirates, Hurdle had to reinvent himself.

“I’ve gone through an obstacle course and come out the other side bigger, stronger and better,” he said. “I’ve learned and lived, on and off the field.

“Usually behind leadership you hope to have good judgment,” Hurdle said, sitting at his desk inside PNC Park. “And good judgment’s needed in times of adversity. How do you get good judgment? Through experience. And how do you get the experience? Through bad judgment.” ...Read More...

During the 1950s, San Francisco Seals were the most fortunate players in baseball. Paul Fagan, their generous owner, spared no expense to make his squad comfortable….

One of the most innovative minds in baseball, Fagan introduced concession stands, upgraded the Seals Stadium ladies room with a million dollar investment and built a spring training facility on Maui. Fagan, whose personal fortune came from his family’s banking businesses and Hawaii real estate made sure his players always ...

Yeah, like the unnerving 1960 Leaf Mass Card Set has no history of its own!

The Topps Company has filed a lawsuit in NY against Leaf Trading Cards—claiming Leaf is using ICONIC Topps baseball cards—including the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card—to promote a new Leaf product.

It’s sorta weird—Leaf has a new line of cards called “2011 Best of Baseball” ... and in every pack, collectors will get 1 new, original Leaf card and 1 bonus card which, depending on your luck, could be a pre-1970 ...

Bruce hit another homer. The two-run shot was his 25th of the season and second in as many nights. But the barrage didn’t end there. The Reds hit a season-high seven homers in an 13-1 victory, their fourth straight. It’s the first time the Reds have won that many in a row since they had a five-game winning streak from May 13 to May 17.

Five of the homers came early and often against Padres starter Tim Stauffer, who left with the loss after three innings, having allowed nine runs on seven hits. ...

I think the Brewers should pick up Helms for another go-around, just for Harveys’ sake…

The clubhouse door stayed shut for several minutes after the Marlins’ 3-0 loss to the Giants on Saturday at Sun Life Stadium. The aftermath? Veteran Wes Helms was released and left fielder Logan Morrison was shipped to Triple-A New Orleans.

Helms, 35, was batting .191. Morrison 23, was hitting .249 with 17 homers and 60 RBI, the third most among the regulars.
...
Vazquez (7-10), the Marlins’ most ...

Wily Mo playing OF in Safeco probably would be quite comical, although unlikely to occur.

Justin Smoak was placed on the disabled list by the Seattle Mariners on Saturday for a non-displaced fracture of his nose.

Taking his place on the roster is much-traveled OF/DH Wily Mo Pena. He was selected from Triple-A Tacoma and was in uniform for Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox, one of four teams Pena has played for in his career.

In related news, the dugout Gatorade dispenser has just been taken off the 90-day DL.

“This was the most stringent penalty that our club could inflict without a release,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “There’s not much worse than running out on your teammates in the middle of a ballgame, unpacking your locker, announcing your retirement. I think that is a tremendous problem with the other 24 guys, and something we as an organization could not tolerate.” [...]

For five games, Posada sat patiently and waited and his opportunity finally came Saturday when Girardi put him back into the lineup as the D.H., batting eighth. The results were nothing less than remarkable.

With the fans giving him a rousing ovation as he went to the plate for the first time in the second inning, Posada rewarded their faith with a two-run single.

But that was merely the appetizer for what would follow three innings later. In one of the memorable moments of the season — at ...

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Giants placed outfielder Andres Torres on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a contusion in his lower right leg. Brandon Belt was recalled from Triple-A Fresno to take Torres’ spot on the roster.
...
The 23-year-old Belt was hitting .309 with eight homers and 32 RBIs in 49 games with the Grizzlies. The Giants’ top prospect has spent time at first base and the two corner outfield positions.

This marks the fourth time Belt, who was the Giants’ Opening Day first baseman, has been with San ...

Johnny WholeStaff pitches the three-hit shutout, helped by some horrible ABs in the ninth by Andrew McCutchen and Matt Diaz.

Marco Estrada pitched five innings in a spot start, combining with four relievers on a three-hitter, and Yuniesky Betancourt homered to carry the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers to a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

Takashi Saito, LaTroy Hawkins, Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford, who earned his 34th save by working around a lead off triple in ...

So Thome stood both on the brink of history and of suspicion. The former he earned, the latter he did not.

As in track and field with doping, so with baseball: Awe yields to doubt. Genuine accomplishments are more tainted than they would have been had a ball-and-chain of asterisks clattered after them. It is hard to prove a negative, that Thome did not take steroids. That is particularly true because his body thickened during his first years with the Tribe.